Powerful Alternatives To ‘Adobe Creative Cloud’ Apps That Are Free For Download

Adobe Creative Cloud is the industry’s standard for creative software, but it’s costly and might not be an option for budding designers. Everyone has to start from somewhere, so there’s nothing to be shy about beginning with lower-cost alternatives.

If you’ve been looking for free substitutes of the industry’s go-to programs, you’re in luck. Tech blog ZDNet has culled a list of 11 software that seem to be the closest copies to Adobe’s suite.

Whether you are just starting out or simply looking for quality software, check out some free and open-source replacements for six of Creative Cloud’s more commonly-used resources and head here to view the whole list.

The open-source ‘GIMP’ remains to be the most popular free alternative for Photoshop’s image-editing and compositing tools that let you manipulate photos, produce graphic design elements, and create artworks from scratch.

If you’re looking for an image organization and optimization software that’s similar to Lightroom, ‘digiKam’ is a close match. The full-featured, open-source photo management program comprises an extensive set of tools for importing, managing, editing, and sharing photos and raw files.

For a vector graphics editor, try ‘Inkscape’, which bills itself to be “similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X.” What’s most different about this program is that it uses Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as its native format.

‘Scribus’ is an open-source desktop publishing software that not only includes professional publishing features, but also vector drawing tools, emulation for color blindness, and support for numerous file types via import or export filters.

If you’re on the lookout for a video editor like Premiere Pro, your search might be over with ‘DaVinci Resolve’. According to its website, the open-source tool is “the world’s first solution that combines professional offline and online editing, color correction, audio post production and now visual effects all in one software tool.”

There’s a free and paid ‘Studio’ version, but the free one is truly powerful as is. The US$299 ‘Studio’ program contains all the features from the complementary suite, along with added toggles for 3D visuals, Resolve FX and more.

‘Fusion’ isn’t just a great substitute for After Effects, but the visual effects and motion graphics tool was also the choice software for Hollywood blockbusters like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Maleficent, The Hunger Games, Thor, Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Just like ‘DaVinci Resolve’, it comes with a paid version that “adds optical flow tools, stereoscopic 3D, retiming and stabilization, third-party OpenFX plugin support, and unlimited distributed network rendering.”